Introduction to MS Project 2007.

Introduction to
MS Project 2007

A simple guide to using MS Project for a basic plan

“Plan, track, and manage your projects and communicate with your team,
by using Microsoft Project”.

Contents
Page
1 Getting Started 2
2 Using the Task Pane List 3
2.1 Set a date to schedule from 3
2.2 Define general working times 3
2.3 List the tasks in the project 5
2.3.1 Create the plan task list 5
2.3.2 See task properties 6
2.3.3 Recurring tasks 6
2.3.4 Put task names on chart 7
2.4 Organize tasks into phases 7
2.5 Schedule tasks 8
2.5.1 Establish links between tasks 8
2.5.2 Specify or change task start and end 8
dates
3 External tasks and using colour 9
4 Essential finishing touches 9
5 Recording progress 10
6 Printing your plan 10
6.1 Selecting dates to print 10
6.2 Putting task details on each page 11
6.3 Adjusting details to fit the page 11

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Appendices 12
A Print previews of DemoPlan.mpp 12
B Checklist of essential items for project and assignment plans 14

1. Getting Started
Being able to plan your workload is a valuable skill, needed not only for your studies at University, but also for your future career, even for organising possible future
personal activities such household DIY.
Project planning may be a directly assessed component of a module that you will be required to do as part of your studies. It is also indirectly assessed; students who do
not plan their work often find that they cannot complete their assignments to time and may get poor marks!

MS Project is a project planning tool that students are required to use for some modules. The skills gained in planning these projects can then be transferred to other
projects and even to planning your full study/leisure/employment activities (should you so wish!).

This document will take you though the creation and customising of a simple project plan.

The information here should be sufficient for most module plans that you will create for your courses.
There is extensive help within MS Project if you wish to find out more.

Start now by creating a new file:

• Open MS Project via the Programs list (or a shortcut icon if you have one)
• Click on the Tasks icon.
You should now have a window that looks like the one shown below.

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This is the Gantt Chart view of the plan (menu: ViewGantt

Chart).

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2. Using the Task Pane List

The items in the Tasks Pane (on the left-hand side of the window – see screenprint above) take you though the creation of a new plan; this document follows the first five
of them to show you how to create a simple plan. Click on an item to see the item information.

If you close your file while part-way through this list, it will reopen at the point you were at before.

If you want to change any of the settings in an existing document, one way is to click on the Task icon on the toolbar, then go to the required item in the list and make the
changes.

2.1 Set a date to schedule from

All tasks have a start date, so choose a suitable date from the dialog provided. A date of the start of the academic year may be suitable for a year-long project module.
The default date is the current system date.

The dates at the head of your plan will adjust to start from your plan start date if you choose a date other than the system date.

The date for this example is the first day of term for the 2006/2007 academic year.

Click on Done to get back to the Task Pane list.

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Click on the Save icon to save your file, giving it a suitable name (DemoPlan, for example). Note that the file will have an .mpp file extension. As with all files that you
create or amend, it is good practice to keep saving after every few changes.

2.2 Define general working times

Here you can say what days of the week you will work and what hours of each working day are to be classed as working hours. You may want to make one (or both!) of
the weekend days into working days, or designate some other day as a regular non-working day, or extend the hours that you will work each day. For simple plans for
assignments and project work the hour’s element is probably not needed, but you may want to give yourself a day off each week.

There are five steps to doing this, and you will be guided by a wizard. Look at the bottom of the task pane to see the step numbers.

Step 1. Define the project's general working hours

Look at the templates provided and select an appropriate template.

Step 2. Define the work week

Use this to define which days are working days and how many hours of each day you will work. Follow the instructions given – they are very self-explanatory. For
example, the screenprint below shows that Monday-Friday have been set as working days from 09:00-21:00 with an hour for lunch, and that Saturday mornings are also
part of the working week.

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Step 3. Set Holidays and Days Off

Here you can specify any one-off days that are not to be classed as working days. Things you could include here are: national, personal (but not during term-time, of
course!) or religious holidays; hospital appointments; placement interviews.

Click on the Change working time…link, choose the month, click on the required day, and set it to the required value. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any way
of setting a comment to indicate why the day setting has been changed.

Use default
Sets the date to the default calendar
that you set in Step 2. This option is
useful if you had arranged a day off
then want to reinstate it.

Nonworking time
Use this to notify the day as a day off.
When you confirm the details (press
the OK button) the day will show in the
plan as a non-working day (it will be
highlighted on the plan, as shown
here).

Nondefault working time

Use this to designate the day as a
working day but with a different set of
hours from those set in Step 2 (you
have a dentist appointment in the
morning, for example).
Step 4. Define time units
This item is not normally necessary for assignment and project plans.

Step 5. The project calendar is set

Read the information here, then click on Save and Finish. Additional calendars are not normally needed for assignment and project plans.

2.3 List the tasks in the project

2.3.1 Create the plan task list

Now we come to the content of the plan – the tasks that are to be scheduled and tracked. Read the More Information link (bottom of Task Pane). A task is “An activity
that has a beginning and an end. Project plans are made up of tasks.” Ref: MS Project Help.

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For your assignment or project you should already know some of the tasks and deliverable dates. Let’s suppose that the plan is to be for a project module and that you
already have the following information for the first few weeks:
• Introductory lecture on Thursday of week 1
• Meeting with supervisor on Tuesday of week 2, at which you are to discuss your ideas for the project
• D#1 Terms of Reference (TOR) and Human Research Ethics (HRE) form – deadline Friday week 3.

This information could guide you to the following task list:

• Introductory lecture
• Project topic Note that MS Project has a
o Research ideas for projects spell-checker – use it to
o Write up notes for ideas ready for first meeting with supervisor make sure all your tasks etc
• First meeting with supervisor, on Tuesday of week 2. are spelled correctly!
• D#1
o Write up TOR
o Complete HRE form
o Submit deliverable

Some tasks naturally break down into sub tasks, as shown above.
Other tasks (lectures, meetings, and submitting work) are pretty small in duration and may be better designated as ‘milestones’. To do this, select the required task and
click the task pane check box for milestones (see screenprint below).

Enter the task list shown here, and change durations to match. Note
the blue ‘task bars’ showing task durations.
Task numbers occur automatically

Set two milestones as shown.

If you want to insert a task in the middle of a list,
highlight the line above which you want the new
Then click on Done.
task to be, and then use InsertNew Task.

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2.3.2 See task properties

If you click on a task bar) you will see the properties for that task.

You can use this property box to change task details. It is especially useful for recording
progress (see section 6).

The Notes tab is useful for adding notes about a task.

2.3.3 Recurring tasks

Some tasks may occur several times throughout the project. If these occur at irregular
intervals, then enter them as separate tasks.

Other tasks may occur at regular intervals, so can be entered as ‘recurring tasks’. An example is a regular review of progress, perhaps on a Friday of each week.

Highlight task 2 and insert a recurring task via the menu: InsertRecurring Task. You
will get the dialog box shown below.
The ‘End by’ date chosen here is the Friday before Easter on the DMU 2006/2007
academic calendar.

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The task will now show with task bars for every Friday throughout the project, all on the same line as the task for ‘review progress’.

Note also that the task numbers after this recurring task will have changed to allow for task 2 actually being many tasks (one per week for 20-odd weeks). See
screenprints in section 2.3.4 and Appendix A.

2.3.4 Put task names on chart items

Your chart will cover many weeks and it can be difficult on printouts to see what task each task bar refers to. If you want to put the task names on each bar, then use the
menu FormatBar Styles to do this:

Note that the task numbers

have changed after
recurring task 2.
Click on the +/- by the side
of the task name to see the
individual tasks.

The screenprint here shows how to set the task name to appear on the left of all milestones.

2.4 Organize tasks into phases

Now you will group your tasks and subtasks.

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Highlight tasks 30 and 31 and press the green ‘indent’ arrow (pointing to the right) on the toolbar.

These two items are now designated as subtasks of task 29. The duration of task 29 has been changed and is calculated from information from the sub tasks. It now has
a black summary task bar. There is a +/- sign to the side of task 29; clicking on this will expand/contract the task.

In the same way, you can designate tasks 34-36 as subtasks of task 33.

If you want to ‘outdent’ an item, simply choose the other green arrow icon (pointing to the left).

2.5 Schedule tasks

2.5.1 Establish links between tasks

Here you will specify which tasks link to other tasks. In a project, this means “establishing a dependency between tasks. Linking tasks defines a dependency between
their start and finish dates”. Ref: MS Project Help.
Extract from MS Project Help: Link tasks in a project or across projects
After tasks are created in a project, they need to be linked to show relationships between them.
Link tasks within the same project
1. On the View menu, click Gantt Chart.
2. In the Task Name field, select two or more tasks you want to link in the order you want to link them.
• To select nonadjacent tasks, hold down CTRL, and then click the tasks you want to link.
• To select adjacent tasks, hold down SHIFT, and then click the first and last tasks you want to link.
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3. Click Link Tasks .
Microsoft Office Project 2003 creates a finish-to-start task link by default. You can change this task link
to start-to-start, finish-to-finish, or start-to-finish.
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For example, tasks 30 and 31 could be linked; you can’t write up research unless you have done the research first.

If you follow the MS Office Help shown above you will see that the tasks are now moved so that task 31 starts when task 30 finishes.

However, you may want to start the write-up part-way through the research (tasks frequently overlap – a ‘waterfall’ approach to all tasks is normally not a good one!).
This is simple to arrange. Double-click on the dependency line and change the properties as shown below.

This states that the second task (31) is to start 2 days before the first one (30) finishes.

2.5.2 Specify or change task start and end dates

With MS Project the idea is that you link all your tasks together and that this will automatically adjust, and thus specify the start and end dates for each task.

However, you can specify the dates separately for unlinked tasks, or change dates to reflect changes to your plan (and there will be changes), by several methods:
• Via the task properties; see section 2.3.2.
o Set the required dates. You may need to reset duration back to 0 (zero) for milestones.
• By changing the dates in the Gantt chart date columns.
• By clicking and dragging the task bar.

See Appendix A for plan printouts showing tasks with various start and end dates.

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3. External tasks and using colour

You will have other modules on the go at the same time as your project, so it could be a useful reminder (and help you with your planning of all modules) to add these to
the plan.

Simply add them as new tasks or milestones; see section 2.3.1.

All text by default is in black font, but colour is useful to identify external tasks. To do this, highlight the task, and then use:
• FormatFont to change the font colour for the selected task details
• FormatBar to change the colour for the selected task bar.

Red font has been used for the external task and the task bar.

4. Essential finishing touches

All plans need to have:
• A title – to explain what the plan is for.
• The author’s name – to show who created and will be updating the plan.
• The date of creation.
• Date and time printed – date is put in the legend automatically by MS Project but you can change it.
• The current date indicated clearly on the plan – MS Project will provide a dotted grey vertical line on the plan,
but you can change the line type and colour.
• Make the plan easier to read by adding horizontal gridlines.
Use FilePage Setup to set various header, footer and legend details:

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Use Format—Gridlines to set/change gridlines and date lines.

Look at Appendix A to see a print preview showing headers, footers, etc.

The date line for the current date is not shown as this document was prepared in June 2006.

5. Recording progress
Your plan has now been started and is ready to use.

When you see your supervisor for progress meetings you will need to take your plan and show progress to date.

Progress can be added via the General tab on task properties; see section 2.3.2.
Click on the +/- by the side of a recurring task to expand the task to see the specific subtask you want to change, then click on +/- again to contract the task afterwards.
• To record progress, simply set the ‘percentage complete’ to an appropriate value.
• The task bar will have a solid line added to indicate the proportion complete.
• Tasks that are 100% complete are indicated by a tick in the indicator column.
• If all tasks in a group are complete then setting the group task as 100% complete will also set the subtasks as 100% complete – and vice versa.

The screenprint below shows that task 1 (the introductory lecture) has been attended (is 100% complete) and that task 30 (research ideas) is 50% complete.

When a group task (such as Project Topic) is 100% complete

you can contract it by clicking on the +/- at the side of the task
name. This can simplify the view and printing of the plan by
omitting details of completed tasks.

A good time to record progress is as part of your weekly

review – not just before a project meeting!

You should also adjust task start and finish dates, add
additional tasks, etc. to reflect what you actually did. It is
normal, indeed expected, for plan details to change in the light of what actually happened (‘best laid plans…’ and all that).

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6. Printing your plan

You will need a printed copy of your plan for all meetings with your supervisor, and possibly as part of one or more of your module deliverables.

If you look at the plan in print preview, you will see that…
• …there are four pages to be printed, from the plan start date to the plan end date – you may not want to print the whole lot each time, especially as the project
progresses.
• …the task details only appear on the first page – this can make making sense of later pages difficult.

6.1 Selecting dates to print

If you print via FilePrint the dialog box will give you the usual option of printing specific pages only, plus the option
of printing between specific dates.

By using this second option you can ensure that you print only the relevant part of the plan.

6.2 Putting task details on each page

Use the View tab of the FilePage Setup dialog box to specify the number of columns you want to
appear on each page. Set the appropriate number then tick the box.

6.3 Adjusting details to fit the page

The plan created here has only a very few tasks. Your project plan will end up much larger, and the task list may go over to a second (or third!) page. You can reduce the
number of pages that will print by choosing the ‘fit to page’ option on the Page tab of the FilePage Setup dialog box.

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Appendix A – print previews of the first two pages of the plan

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Page 2 of 2

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Checklist of essential items

Be aware of all the items listed below and include them in your plan.

Feature Section Comments Tips (some copied or summarised from

MS Project Help etc)
Set project's 2.1 Projects will need to have a If your plans change, you can change
start date start date! this at any time via ProjectProject
Information.
Set a work 2.2 Sets working hours for each You can change this information later
schedule. weekday. via ToolsChange Working Time.
Enter tasks and 2.3.1 First work out what the tasks You can add a note to a task that
their durations. are and their likely times. contains information, such as detailed
3 You can specify different explanations, assumptions, or where
colours and fonts for tasks. the task originated.
Enter a recurring 2.3.3 Useful for regular reviews, To view all occurrences of a recurring
task. meetings, etc. task, click the small '+' icon next to the
main recurring task.
Structure tasks 2.4 Create subtasks to split a To undo outlining, outdent all subtasks
into a logical larger task up into sub until all your tasks return to the same
outline. components. outline level.
Schedule the 2.5.1 Establish links between tasks.
tasks.
Start or finish 2.5.2 Set start and finish dates for
tasks on specific all tasks.
dates.
Overlap tasks or 2.5.1 Refine the linkage between You can quickly add lead or lag time to
add time lag tasks to allow some overlap a successor task by double-clicking the
between tasks. or lag time. link line on the Gantt Chart, and then
typing the amount of lead or lag time in
the Task Dependency dialog box.
Make the plan 4 Various format options to Click Gantt chart on View bar to format
look the way you customise the layout of your the whole sheet, or just click on the
want. chart, add header/footer task(s) to format selections.
details, and improve
readability on screen and
when printed.
Customise your 6 How to fit the printout onto To change options, such as printing
printouts. pages; add columns to each notes or a specific number of columns,
page; select dates; etc. click Page Setup on the File menu, click
the View tab, and then select the
options you want.
Recording 5 Essential for project planning
progress. and reviews!
A task in my project starts earlier than the project start date

Symptoms

A task in your project starts earlier than the project start date.

CAUSE

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 You might have set a date constraint, such as Start No Earlier Than (SNET) or Must Start On (MSO),

which ties the task to a date earlier than the project's start date. These constraints can cause the task to be

scheduled before the project's start date.

 The task might have an external dependency to a task in another project. That dependency might be

causing the task to start earlier than the project start date.

 The task might have an actual start date recorded before the project start date.

Resolution

 If your task has a date constraint to begin no earlier than the project's start date, reset the constraint.

Select the task, click Task Information , and then click the Advanced tab. In the Constraint type list,

click As Soon As Possible.

 If your task requires an external dependency, change the project start date to match the external

dependency date. On the Project menu, click Project Information. In the Start date box, enter the new

date.

 If your task has an incorrect actual start date, select the task, and then on the Tools menu, point to

Tracking and then click Update Tasks. Under Actual, change the date in the Start box.

Finally – note that MS Project has a spellchecker.

Make sure that all your tasks and notes are spelled correctly!

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